In the wake of the global financial crisis, the need to deliver aid effectively is more urgent than ever. A new United Nations report finds that the working poor in developing countries have been hardest hit. Yet the World Bank is falling short of its potential. At the heart of the matter is a tension between its mission and its business model. Reconciling this tension, one of the most challenging in its 65-year history, is the critical task for its leaders who will gather in Istanbul on Tuesday.

The World Bank is the only global institution with the sole purpose of fighting poverty. To be effective, it needs to focus all its resources on achieving this mission. The bank’s business model fails at the very foundations of its structure. Its two main sources of revenue, interest payments on loans from borrowing governments and contributions from wealthy member governments, both stand in conflict with its anti-poverty mission.